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20 YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL: A LOST OPPORTUNITY
Ignacio Ramonet
NOVEMBER 2009 (IPS) - The historic opportunity presented by the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago has been squandered, writes Ignacio Ramonet, editor of Le Monde Diplomatique in Spanish.
In this analysis, the author writes that Washington, forgetting the promise made to bring the world the benefits of the "peace dividend", instead imposes a forced march to spread what it believes is its winning idea: economic globalisation. What follows is a return of savage capitalism. On the military front, Washington unleashes its hyperpower.
The world is not better off today. The food, energy, ecological, and economic crises are frightening. Inequalities increase. The wall of money looms taller than ever: the wealth of the fifty richest people of the planet exceeds that of the poorest 500 million. The wall that separates the North from the South is still intact: malnutrition, poverty, illiteracy, and the lack of health care have grown more severe, especially in Africa.
And then there are the new walls that have been raised, like that Israel built to separate it from the Palestinians, or the one Washington built along its border with Mexico to keep out Latin American immigrants, or those erected in Europe to keep out Africans. When will we decide once and for all to destroy all of these shameful walls?
(*) Ignacio Ramonet is the editor of Le Monde Diplomatique in Spanish.
//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN SPAIN OR PORTUGAL//
//NOT FOR PUBLICATION UNTIL NOVEMBER 5, 2009// (END/2009)
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